LANIAD.E. 41 



ter visitor to this country, or whether it occasionally breeds 

 here, we cannot determine, although we incline to the for- 

 mer opinion. Its nest is described as built on trees and 

 lower brushwood, or in thick bushes and high hedges; the 

 outside materials various and of a coarse description, while 

 the lining consists of wool, down, finer roots, and dried 

 grass. The eggs, five, six, or even seven in number, are of 

 a bluish, greyish, or yellowish white, spotted and blotched 

 with different shades of grey and light-brown. 



The Great Shrike, or Butcher-Bird, destroys mice, 

 shrews, lizards, small snakes, small birds, as well as grass- 

 hoppers, beetles, and other large insects. Having killed 

 its prey, it transfixes the victim on a thorn, or secures it 

 between the fork of a twig, where it remains firmly wedged 

 in while the bird tears it in pieces with its beak. Mr. Dou- 

 bleday, of Epping, had an adult Butcher-Bird in his pos- 

 session for twelve months. When a bird was given it, it 

 invariably broke the victim's skull, and generally ate the 

 head first. Sometimes it held the bird in its claws, and 

 pulled it to pieces after the manner of hawks, but seemed 

 to prefer forcing it through part of the wires of its cage, 

 and then pulling at it. It always hung what it could not 

 eat up on the sides of the cage. It would often eat three 



